The subject matter disclosed herein relates to radiographic detectors for non-invasive imaging and particularly to the construction and use of a radiation detector having stacked layers of radio-opaque vias disposed within an electrical substrate.
In radiographic systems, an X-ray source emits radiation (e.g., X-rays) towards an object or subject (e.g., a patient, a manufactured part, a package, or a piece of baggage) to be imaged. As used herein, the terms “subject” and “object” may be interchangeably used to describe anything capable of being imaged. The emitted X-rays, after being attenuated by the subject or object, typically impinge upon an array of radiation detector elements of an electronic detector. The intensity of radiation reaching the detector is typically dependent on the attenuation and absorption of X-rays through the scanned subject or object. At the detector, a scintillator may convert some of the X-ray radiation to lower energy optical photons that strike detector elements configured to detect the optical photons. Each of the detector elements then produces a separate electrical signal indicative of the amount of optical light detected, which generally corresponds to the incident X-ray radiation at the particular location of the element. The electrical signals are collected, digitized and transmitted to a data processing system for analysis and further processing to reconstruct an image.
In certain situations, some portion of the X-rays, however, may bypass the scintillator without interacting with the scintillator material or may intersect the scintillator at one or more sites where the scintillator material is not present. For example, planes of non-scintillator material may be present that divide the scintillator into discrete “pixels” or detector elements. In these scenarios, some amount of the X-ray radiation may thus pass through the scintillator, such as along these dividers, without being absorbed and/or converted. Such X-ray radiation may therefore act to degrade any electronics or circuitry positioned in the path of the radiation. Accordingly, it may be beneficial to provide systems and methods that help reduce the amount of radiation impacting the electronics or circuitry positioned in the path of the radiation.